8. Arsenal
Arsenal were not particularly convincing in qualifying from the group stages, and needed an excellent performance to get over the line last night, but their home defeat of Bayern Munich showed how good they can be when on form.
7. Man City
A team who have underachieved, when you consider their financial clout, in recent years, City are probably the best placed of the remaining Premier League teams to qualify. However, Manuel Pellegrini’s side are still relative dark horses, despite doing well to come top of a group that included Juventus.
6. Juventus
Despite losing some key names in the summer, Juventus still look like one of the strongest sides in the competition on paper. However, finishing runners-up in their group will mean they’ll have to win it the hard way.
5. Atletico Madrid
Currently second ahead of Real Madrid in La Liga, Atletico Madrid reached the final in 2014 and have a decent record in Europe in recent years, so deserve respect. They also progressed from their group with relative ease.
4. Paris Saint-Germain
The French champions seem to improve slightly year on year, as emphasised by the surprising level of resilience they showed to beat Chelsea with 10 men at Stamford Bridge last season. They are another team who will be hampered by a second-place finish in the group stages, but were only narrowly eclipsed by a side as strong as Real Madrid.
3. Real Madrid
They haven’t had the best of seasons under Rafa Benitez so far, but a team with Real’s depth of talent and history in the competition will inevitably be a strong contender for any title they compete for.
2. Bayern Munich
They proved they were human with a 2-0 loss to Arsenal, but that hiccup aside, their campaign has been fairly flawless. They have looked similarly imperious in the Bundesliga, winning 13 of their 15 games so far this season.
1. Barcelona
The holders are rightly most people’s favourites to triumph again this year. The fact that they dealt comfortably with an injury to Lionel Messi for a sustained period says everything about the Catalan team’s strength in depth.
